GRAND-AM, SPEED Look to Continue Momentum from Successful 2009 Season
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Nov., 2009) - All 12 races on the 2010 GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series presented by Crown Royal Cask No. 16 schedule will be televised live on SPEED, GRAND-AM officials announced today.
America's premier road racing sanctioning body looks to continue momentum from the 2009 season, when SPEED viewership increased 42 percent and the number of households watching the races increased 39 percent over the 2008 season.
In addition, eight of the 10 GRAND-AM KONI Sports Car Challenge races will be televised on SPEED next season.
The 2010 Rolex Series campaign opens with the 48th running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona on Saturday, Jan. 30. SPEED coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET, prior to the 3:25 p.m. ET green flag, and lasts until 11 p.m. ET. Coverage resumes at 7 a.m. ET and will run to the finish at 4 p.m. ET.
GRAND-AM will continue to expand its fan-friendly activities during the events. In 2009, the pre-race fan walk and driver autograph session received overwhelming positive response from the fans, teams and drivers.
"I was amazed at the fan response this past season," said Mike Johnson, team manager for Stevenson Motorsports. "This year has been the largest single improvement I've seen in 10 years of GRAND-AM, in what they're doing to get people to the race track. This year, with everything GRAND-AM has done with the pit walk and the schedule of the weekends, has been great. Everywhere we go we feel like we're part of a major event; everyone's having a great time."
In addition to the fan-friendly initiatives at each event, GRAND-AM continues its focus on keeping fans in touch with the series through grand-am.com, developing a new feature to download the Rolex Series TV schedule to various electronic calendars. This function enables fans to stay in tune with the series by setting the broadcast dates and times with reminders on their calendars.
The next event for the Rolex Series will be testing at Daytona International Speedway on Dec. 8-9. The 2010 season kicks off with the "Roar Before the Rolex 24," a Jan. 8-10 test at Daytona for both the Rolex Series and KONI Challenge.
